Concept art of a neutron bomb explosion. (Internet photo)
Unconfirmed reports on various websites in China claim the People's Liberation Army possesses a neutron bomb and would use it as a last resort against a potential US invasion, Duowei News, a news outlet run by overseas Chinese reported on June 26.
One online article said a neutron bomb could take out a US convoy of M1A2 Abrams main battle tank and M2A3 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, killing all military personnel without doing significant damage to the vehicles themselves.
A neutron bomb sends a massive wave of neutron and gamma radiation that can penetrate armor or several feet of earth and is extremely destructive to living tissue. The bomb was developed to counter a potential Soviet invasion of Western Europe during the Cold War.
General Zhang Aiping, former deputy chief of PLA's general staff department, wrote in a poem for the Communist party mouthpiece People's Daily on Sept. 21, 1977, only months after the US tested its first neutron bomb, that it would not be difficult for China to develop the weapon. On Dec. 19, 1984. China tested its first neutron bomb two years after Zhang was appointed defense minister.
China successfully completed a neutron bomb test on Sept. 29, 1988.
Credit to wantchinatimes.com
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